EAST plasma passes the 100 seconds mark
10 Jul 2017
Recent experiments performed on the EAST superconducting tokamak in Hefei, China have demonstrated the sustainment of high temperature plasmas in the so-called H-mode confinement regime over a record timescale of over 100 seconds, as reported by the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Operators at EAST report the achievement of a sustained high-temperature plasma in H-mode over a record timescale of more than 100 seconds.
On 3 July operators at EAST achieved a stable 101.2 second steady-state high confinement (H-mode) plasma. In its press release Chief Operator Xianzu Gong thanked the collaborators at home and abroad who have contributed over the past decade to upgrading the machine and to solve a series of key technical and physical issues closely related to steady-state operation.
H‐mode describes the sudden improvement of plasma confinement in the magnetic field of tokamaks by approximately a factor of two, and is the high confinement regime that all modern tokamaks, including ITER, rely on.
Research at EAST on physics and technology issues under steady-state operational conditions is directly relevant to ITER.
Read the full press release on the IPP-CAS website.